May be difficult in the Austin area, but if it's achievable, do it. 

Because she has been a very difficult tenant so I always had to think ahead.

There are already statutes and regulations regarding fraud and deception in real estate transactions.Educating people who want to be educated is fine, but if a governing body restricts the pool of ready and willing buyers, more properties will go to foreclosure and sit on the market longer.Real estate investors perform a vital function in every jurisdiction: putting properties back on the market, in good condition.Many of the properties they buy could never pass conventional lender's inspection because they typically require tens of thousands of dollars in repairs that most homeowners do not have or cannot do themselves.Additionally, many real estate investors near metropolitan centers can access almost an unlimited pool of funding to buy and remodel properties if the numbers work.From contract to close, the time can be in as little as 3-4 business days.The delay is mostly waiting on title companies.So when flippers mail letters and post cards to owners saying they can "close quick" and "all cash", that is a fact, not fraud.Of course, realtors will recommend you list your property – that's how they make money – so they are self-interested, which makes the report biased.Maybe next time you can have a "flipper" on you show for balanced reporting.The idea of anyone feeling "pressured" by getting a post card or flyer is ludicrous.If the homeowner doesn't want to sell, the solution is to throw them away.But the idea of "there ought to be a law" is equally ludicrous.If there are bad actors committing fraud, the answer is to enforce the laws already on the books.Out of all the properties posted for sale every 1st Tuesday of the month at the trustee's sale, a very large percentage never make it because they are bought by the very flippers you disparaged.If not for the real estate investing community, cities around the country would look much, much worse.My biggest complaint with your report is that you completely failed to get the rest of the story.Your editor needs address this."

A previous commenter suggested commercial properties, I fully support this. 30 Year / Fixed Rate is appealing yes, but it is difficult to scale.

I go through a healthy balance of mindset books and realestate focused books/podcasts and it helps keep me grounded and driven.

Atlanta varies from one end of the city to the next and the property value is difficult to pin down because so much is happening so fast.

My family and I want to house hack, but are having issues with our DTI ratio since FHA uses 1% of your student loan balance and my income is around $70K/year.

I'm not opposed to flips, but they are more difficult for me since I'm abroad so much. 

On the ACV policy say worst case scenario if they offered you $15,000 minus your deductible... could you absorb the balance to make $30,000 in repairs?

It seems like there's always balance to be had (i.e. choose between quality, service, price).